The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
LUCY: A LOVE STORY
TOP Being Mum with TV PREVIEWS
PICK MND – Tuesday, BBC Scotland, 10pm
Lucy Lintott was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease (MND) at the age of 19. Doctors told her she would never be able to conceive. Lucy and her fiancé, Tommy, are now the proud parents of two young children. She is believed to be one of the few people with MND to have given birth twice. It’s also highly likely that she might be the youngest person in Scotland to have been diagnosed with MND. This touching documentary allows Lucy and her family to reflect upon their situation. She talks candidly about living with a degenerative condition, but she’s almost always upbeat. That’s her inherent nature. It’s also a beautiful love story. Lucy and Tommy are good, kind,
inspiring people.
DI Ray – Monday to Thursday, STV, 9pm
This is not your standard ITV
cop drama in the sense that it has an interesting, socially conscious point of view. It hits all the necessary beats of a thriller while exploring an important issue: the systemic racism, whether casual or overt, in our society. DI Ray is a highly capable Asian-British police officer who is dismayed to learn that her recent promotion
to the homicide department was based on her supposed suitability for “Culturally Specific Homicides”. It’s a racially insensitive boxticking exercise. While investigating two Asian
brothers accused of murder, she’s forced to confront the realities of working in an institution prone to making assumptions on ill-informed cultural stereotypes.
Davina McCall: Sex, Mind and the Menopause – Monday, Channel 4, 9pm
During the production of this documentary, Channel
4 carried out a survey of premenopausal and menopausal women. Their findings were shocking. Natural symptoms such as vague memory loss are being used against women in the workplace. People have lost
their jobs as a result. Davina McCall wants to find out if anything can be done to challenge this injustice. She also investigates some of the latest advances in hormone
therapy, while meeting with experts who have studied the complex neurological effects of the menopause. I haven’t seen this, it wasn’t available for preview; I’m basing my recommendation on
McCall’s earlier and entirely responsible documentaries
surrounding this subject.
Married to a Psychopath – Monday, Channel 4, 10pm
Malcolm Webster is one of the most notorious
psychopaths of recent times. He murdered his first wife, Claire, in 1994.
He attempted to murder his second, Felicity, in 1997. He also had a series of bigamous relationships with women he psychologically abused for his own financial ends. Webster, imprisoned in 2011, is a hideously dangerous man. This two-part documentary is told from the perspective of Charles Henry, a rural Scottish detective with time on his hands who proved instrumental in the case against Webster. Henry’s efforts were tireless. I recommend watching this in conjunction with The
Widower, an above-par 2014 TV drama starring Reece
Shearsmith as Webster.
Secret Spenders: Beat the Price Rises – Thursday, Channel 4, 8pm
Anita Rani is on a mission to save us all a fortune in these times of rocketing energy prices. Such is her concern, she’s assembled an undercover film crew who have secretly monitored the spending habits of various UK families. Which all sounds terribly unethical, but the people in question are willing participants. Legal contracts have been signed. This, as you’ve doubtless gathered, is just another Channel 4 lifestyle show. But it may be of some use to people who spend whatever they manage to earn each month on utility bills, food and liquids to keep themselves alive, plus the essential needs of a demanding housecat. A tantalising glimpse into your humble critic’s life there.
The Terror – Friday, BBC Two, 9pm
You may recall the first series of producer Ridley Scott’s supernatural anthology revolved around the reallife mystery of a lost Arctic expedition in the mid-19th
Century: historical fact with speculative fiction. Series two follows suit. It’s set in California in World War Two, when thousands of JapaneseAmericans were incarcerated in concentration camps. They were law-abiding citizens who posed no threat to anyone. Their internment was a heinous human rights violation entirely borne of racial prejudice. The cast includes George Takei, who resided in one of those camps when he was a child. He also
serves as a series consultant to ensure accuracy. Episode one is intriguing, eerie and
sensitively handled.
The Other One – Friday, BBC One, 9.30pm
Series two of Holly Walsh’s sitcom continues the
eventful story of two adult sisters, Cathy and Cat, who only found out about each other’s existence following the death of their father. They’ve become quite close. They’ve also just discovered that they might have a halfbrother. Cathy snogged him a few hours before anyone concerned was aware of their kinship. Hardly ideal. We also catch up on the developing relationship between their mismatched mothers. This
is a sharp, dry-witted yet ultimately rather warm farce populated by likeable, welldrawn characters. It revels in silliness and nice little details. A great cast too: it’s a proven fact that you can’t go wrong with Siobhan Finneran and Rebecca Front.